NCAA Football 08 Critic Reviews

Easily the best football game yet for the Xbox 360. Sporting a beautiful look and feel and more modes than you can shake a stick at, it’ll cure your football fever all season long.

The band playing the classic school fight songs, the cheering of the crowd and realistically rendered stadiums combine with the smooth animations that the 60 frames-per second NCAA Football 08 delivers for a magnificent gaming experience, including a perfect balance of solid running and passing controls.

A silky smooth 60 frames-per-second performance benchmark.

NCAA 08 is more fleshed-out than its predecessor and by being so improves on the key complaint against that game.

Two necessary fixes, EA: 08 needs more online options, and let my QB get some air under the ball. Otherwise, this is brilliant.

From the very first snap, you'll notice this game runs a whole lot faster and smoother than last year's edition, thanks to the necessary bump to 60 frames per second.

While this year's iteration fell just a bit short of greatness, we'll just have to wait to see if the game strikes the Heisman in during its junior year.

This year's game isn't drastically different from NCAA 07, but NCAA Football 08 is still a lot better than its predecessor. Added depth means you'll play a ton longer, and tightened up gameplay makes for a game that plays much better than before.

For this year's version of NCAA Football 08, EA has included some features that they shouldn't have omitted from last year's version. The graphics haven't taken a great leap but it's been polished up a little more. The campus legend mode isn't to bad and I do enjoy that you can participate on only defense or offense if you so desire.

I would recommend speeding the recruitment phase up a little, you can get lost in the moment and spend more time recruiting than actually playing.

NCAA Football 08 is a good step forward for next-gen, HD college football gaming, but there's still plenty of room for improvement

It's on the edge of greatness as well, particularly thanks to a deeper Dynasty mode and inclusion of Campus Legend mode that helps add to the replayability of the title. However, the game still features a number of technical and balancing issues that keep it from being a truly great football game.

It's nice to see such a strong effort come forth from EA and I only hope they keep this kind of intensity in the future with their other franchises as well. NCAA Football 08 is a must buy for any fan of the grid iron.

Online issues aside, EA has never released such a feature rich and incredibly polished college football game.

EA has made some strides over last year’s college football game, and the main reason why is that they finally included all of the features from previous console generations game.

NCAA Football 08 does for EA's vaunted franchise what Carson Palmer did for USC a few years ago -- it ushers in a return to glory.

For all that it does right, perhaps it’s telling that this series has improved its presentation off of the field, while still lacking some of it on the field. It’s these kind of intangibles (and those above) that need to be addressed to unify all of NCAA’s elements – as well as some of them are done – to create the ultimate college football experience.

The in-game presentation doesn't have much of a college football feel to it, and the amount of turnovers will likely frustrate many hardcore fans. But even with these issues, NCAA Football 08 is a great game and another step in the right direction for the franchise.

Feels slighly unfinished: the load times are long, the camera hiccups and stutters on occasion, and some of the onfield play should be tighter... but the game's bright spots are so good that we're still enthusiastically playing.

The gameplay could have been enhanced a bit more, but the same great football game you have come to enjoy over the years is still the best any fan can hope for.